Information & Communication

Fixing a fissure as a designer gave me a key insight: communication is crucial for your repair. Cultivating a healthy flow of information added practical principles to my protocol:

Don’t panic until you know the whole story. Fissures can feel risky. Physical symptoms may be alarming, especially at first. Remedies may seem inconvenient and expensive. Long-term effects can cause concern. Guidance might be unnervingly terse (several sources I read jumped from the benefits of fiber to the risk of permanent incontinence with startling speed) or of questionable intent. Throw in a few wrong assumptions and some sly marketing, and you’ve built a virtual anxiety factory in the mind.

Imagining worst-case scenarios isn’t always bad—in product design, conjuring up a little catastrophe can actually help define desired results. But fear can also halt further exploration when it’s needed most. As an antidote, seeking the whole story can yield a range of positive prospects prior to panicking.

Take the term “incontinence.” Incontinence (literally, “lacking self-restraint,” which medically means the inability to retain a bodily discharge voluntarily) may indeed be an outcome of fissure surgery. But the term itself doesn’t mean permanent, constant, and debilitating results. In fact, incontinence may be temporary and present only in the early stages of healing, might involve only trace amounts of gas (no liquids or solids), and could occur infrequently. If it poses a greater challenge, a range of solutions exist today, and new approaches are being investigated. Even a simple change of perspective might help—the contents, volume, and velocity of minor incontinence may be easier and more socially elegant to address than the standard sneeze.

You get the idea. Seeking the whole story means striving for understanding, which allows reality to trounce fear, which turns the need and value of panic—especially premature panic—down to zero.

Make information usable. I found a lot of material that was informative but not easily usable. For example, many articles encouraged more fiber intake, but only a few pointed out that too much fiber can also cause problems, and even fewer questioned whether increasing fiber was actually a good idea in all circumstances. Likewise, many articles implied that fissure sufferers generally drink less water than needed, but only a few acknowledged that specific circumstances—demanding deadlines, busy travel schedule, hot weather, lack of acclimatization, and higher levels of physical exertion, for instance—might temporarily increase fissure risk through inadequate hydration even for people whose normal water intake is quite good.

Making information usable means putting key points into a personally actionable form—something like “Eat fiber, drink water, both in the right amount” and then adjusting for a variety of individual circumstances, such as paying more attention to your diet when under stress. (How to determine “the right amount” is coming up in a later section). The value of personalizing generic communication will become increasingly clear as you build your protocol.

Notice your network. Despite its unwanted presence, I found that a fissure serves as a temporary and highly-attuned sensor array, providing an unusually detailed report of the body’s inner rhythms, workings, and repair needs. Since pain is often the dominant feeling, it’s tempting to block these signals, but I realized that noticing your internal network is vital. Why?

Tuning in helped me target my attention and detect small changes. I sensed more clearly how certain food and drink affected my GI tract. I became more aware of my pelvic floor and began isolating muscles or muscle groups (similar to muscle isolation in weightlifting) to reduce tension. And I began to localize pain, creating a mental map of sorts that helped me use micro-movements to diminish discomfort and promote healing (I’ll say more about this later). Importantly, noticing my network helped me determine whether an action produced positive or negative results.

If you’ve set muscle relaxation as your primary goal, as I did, you’ll need to notice and use the data sent by your internal network. I’ll say more about this in upcoming sections, but now is not too early to really tune in.

Perceive preferences. Because I live in Silicon Valley, I’ve had the opportunity to speak with many technically-minded people, and I’d like to share an observation that might help when talking with your doctor or other healthcare professionals.

Imagine spending years learning, using, and refining a vast amount of complex, specialized, and precise knowledge. Now you’re conversing with someone who knows less than you, whose experience is limited, and who describes their situation in non-technical terms. How would you handle the conversation?

I’ve noticed that technical experts tend toward one of two basic styles. Some start with broad themes, freely address concerns at a high level, and go deep only when necessary. Others focus intently on the current problem, avoid information overload, and work their way up to general concepts only as needed. Both styles have the goal of right-sizing information, but depending on your own preference, you might find the resulting conversation easy and enlightening or strange and strained. In either case, your post-talk analysis may leave you with more questions than actionable data, especially if your discussion felt brief or rushed.

I’ve found that the faster you can perceive communication preferences—your own and those of your provider—the faster you’ll get actionable information.

For example, if you’d prefer specifics from a doctor who starts with broad themes, you might build some details into your questions (“Does nifedipine ointment get messy in hot weather?”) whereas if you prefer general expectations, you might seek an overview from the more focused physician (“If I try pelvic floor therapy, what does a typical session involve?”). Similarly, planning your questions and adjusting your comments to mesh better with your medical provider’s preference and expertise can produce superior results that much faster.

If so much emphasis on communication seems surprising, my reason is this: whether it comes from other people or from your own internal network, the ability to focus on feedback is essential for fixing a fissure. This will become clear as a diamond very soon.

Next, let’s take a brief look at Our Amazing Design.

Last updated: June 2019